Vehicle body parts are often manufactured with slots and holes to attach the body part to a vehicle. The vehicle body parts including its slots and holes often deflect or deform under heat and other forces applied to the vehicle over its life during general use. The deflection or deformation often causes fit and finish issues over the life of the vehicle such that the vehicle body part may not fit properly to the frame of vehicle, leaving gaps between the frame and the part. Such gaps may affect the performance of the vehicle and generally reduces the aesthetic appeal of vehicle. Thus it is necessary to know how a vehicle body component will deflect and the location of the deflection to enable engineers to properly design the component onto the vehicle.
Deflection calculations, however, are often very cumbersome and require engineers to use complex formulas to determine the properties of deflection. Additionally, parts engineers generally may not have the mathematical background or skill to perform the deflection analysis. As such, specialized attention is often given to deflection analysis, sapping valuable resources that may be deployed elsewhere.